and Time’s annoy,
Since Our Son died, who taught the way of perfect peace?
Thou knowest it how I love these dear Humanities.
Is all quite well with Man?

  Gabriel All’s well with the World, ay well.
All’s well enough with Man.   Satan (aside) Alas, poor Gabriel.   The Lord God How meanest thou “enough”? Man holdeth then Earth’s seat,
Master of living things. He mild is and discreet,
Supreme in My Son’s peace. The Earth is comforted
With its long rest from toil, nor goeth aught in dread,
Seeing all wars have ceased, the mad wars of old time.
The lion and the lamb lie down in every clime.
There is no strife for gold, for place, for dignities,
All holding My Son’s creed! The last fool hath grown wise.
He hath renounced his gods, the things of wood and stone!   Gabriel The Christian name prevaileth. Its dominion
Groweth in all the lands. From Candia to Cathay
The fear of Christ is spread, and wide through Africa.   The Lord God The fear and not the love?   Gabriel Who knoweth Man’s heart? All bow,
And all proclaim His might. The manner and the how
It were less safe to argue, since some frailties be.
We take the outward act to prove conformity.
All’s well enough with Man—most well with Christendom.   The Lord God Again thou sayest “enough.” How fareth it in Rome?
Hath My vicegerent rest?   Gabriel He sitteth as of old
Enthroned in Peter’s chair with glories manifold.
He sang a mass this morning and I heard his prayer.   The Lord God For Peace?   Gabriel And Power on Earth.   The Lord God And were the monarchs there,
The great ones in their place? Did a3ll pray with one breath?   Gabriel Some priests and poor I saw,   Satan (aside) The poor he always hath.   Gabriel His guards, his chamberlains.   The Lord God The mighty ones, the proud,
Do they not kneel together daily in one crowd?
Have they no common counsel?   Gabriel Kings have their own needs,
Demanding separate service.   Satan (aside) Ay, and their own creeds.
One cause alone combines them, and one service—mine.   The Lord God Thou sayest?   Gabriel Man still is Man.   The Lord God We did redeem his line
And crown him with new worship. In the ancient days
His was a stubborn neck. But now he hath found grace,
Being born anew. His gods he hath renounced, sayest thou?
He worshippeth the Christ? What more?   Gabriel Nay, ’tis enow.
He is justified by faith. He hath no fear of Hell
Since he hath won Thy grace. All’s well with Man,—most well.   The Lord God “All’s well”! The fair phrase wearieth. It hath a new false ring.
Truce, Gabriel, to thy word fence. Mark my questioning.
Or rather no—not thou, blest Angel of all good,
Herald of God’s glad tidings to a world subdued,
Thou lover tried of Man. I will not question thee,
Lest I should tempt too sore and thou lie cravenly.
Is there no other here, no drudge, to do that task
And lay the secret bare, the face behind the mask?
One with a soul less white, who loveth less, nay hates;
One fit for a sad part, the Devil’s advocate’s;
One who some wrong hath done, or hath been o’erborne of ill,
And so hath his tongue loosed? O for Soul with will!
O for one hour of Satan!   Satan He is here, Lord God,
Ready to speak all truths to Thy face, even “Ichabod,
Thy glory is departed,” were that truth.   The Lord God Thou? Here?   Satan A suppliant for Thy pardon, and in love, not fear,
One who Thou knowest doth love Thee, ay, and more than these.   The Lord God That word was Peter’s once.   Satan I speak no flatteries;
Nor shall I Thee deny for this man nor that maid,
Nor for the cock that crew.   The Lord God Thou shalt not be gainsaid.
I grant thee audience. Speak.   Satan Alone?   The Lord God ’Twere best alone.
Angels, ye are dismissed. (The angels depart.) Good Satan, now say on.   Satan (alone with The Lord God) Omnipotent Lord God! Thou knowest all. I speak
Only as Thy poor echo, faltering with words weak,
A far-off broken sound, yet haply not unheard.
Thou knowest the Worlds Thou madest, and Thine own high word
Declaring they were good. Good were they in all sooth
The mighty Globes Thou mouldedst in the World’s fair youth,
Launched silent through the void, evolving force and light.
Thou gatheredst in Thy hand’s grasp shards of the Infinite
And churnedst them to Matter; Space concentrated,
Great, glorious, everlasting. The Stars leaped and fled,
As hounds, in their young strength. Yet might they not withdraw
From Thy hand’s leash and bond. Thou chainedst them with law.
They did not sin, those Stars, change face, wax proud, rebel.
Nay, they were slaves to Thee, things incorruptible.
I might not tempt them from Thee.   The Lord God And the reason?   Satan Hear.
Thou gavest them no mind, no sensual atmosphere,
Who wert Thyself their soul. Though thou should drowse for aye,
They should not swerve, nor flout Thee, nor abjure Thy way,
Not by a hair’s breadth, Lord.   The Lord God Thou witnessest for good.   Satan I testify for truth. In all that solitude
Of spheres involved with spheres, of prodigal force set free,
There hath been no voice untrue, no tongue to disagree,
No traitor thought to wound with less than perfect word.
Such was Thy first Creation. I am Thy witness, Lord.
’Twas worthy of Thyself.   The Lord God And of the second?   Satan Stop.
How shall I speak of it unless Thou give me hope;
I who its child once was, though daring to rebel;
I who Thine outcast am, the banished thief of Hell,
Thy too long reprobate? Thou didst create to Thee
A world of happy Spirits for Thy company,
For Thy delight and solace, as being too weary grown
Of Thy sole loneliness—’twas ill to be alone.
And Thou didst make us pure, as Thou Thyself art pure.
Yet was there seed of ill—What Spirit may endure
The friction of the Spirit? Where two are, Strife is.
Thou gavest us mind, thought, will; all snares to happiness.   The Lord God Unhappy blinded one. How sinnedst thou? Reveal.   Satan Lord, through my too great love, through my excess of zeal.
Listen. Thy third Creation....   The Lord God Ha! The Earth! Speak plain.
Now will I half forgive thee. What of the Earth, of men?
Was that not then the best, the noblest of the three?   Satan Ah, glorious Lord God! Thou hadst Infinity
From which to choose Thy plan. This plan, no less than those,
Was noble in conception, when its vision rose
Before Thee in Thy dreams. Thou deemedst to endow
Time with a great new wonder, wonderful as Thou,
Matter made sensitive, informed with Life, with Soul.
It grieved Thee the Stars knew not. Thou couldst not cajole
Their music into tears, their beauty to full praise.
Thou askedst one made conscious of Thy works and ways,
One dowered with sense and passion, which should feel and move
And weep with Thee and laugh, one that alas, should love.
Thus didst thou mould the Earth. We Spirits, wondering, eyed
Thy new-born fleshly things, Thy Matter deified.
We saw the sea take life, its myriad forms all fair.
We saw the creeping things, the dragons of the air,
The birds, the four-foot beasts, all beautiful, all strong,
All brimming o’er with joyaunce, new green woods among,
Twice glorious in their lives. And we, who were but spirit,
Envied their lusty lot, their duplicated merit,
Their feet, their eyes, their wings, their physical desires,
The anger of their voices, the fierce sexual fires
Which lit their sentient limbs and joined them heart to heart,
Their power to act, to feel, all that corporeal part
Which is the truth of love and giveth the breathing thing
The wonder of its beauty incarnate in Spring.
What was there, Lord, in Heaven comparable with this,
The mother beast with her young? Not even Thy happiness,
Lord of the Universe! What beautiful, what bold,
What passionate as she? She doth not chide nor scold
When at her dugs he mumbleth. Nay, the milk she giveth
Is as a Sacrament, the power by which he liveth
A double life with hers. And they two in a day
Know more of perfect joy than we, poor Spirits, may
In our eternity of sober loneliness.
This was the thing we saw, and praised Thee and did bless.   The Lord God Where then did the fault lie? Thou witnessest again.
Was it because of Death, Life’s complement,—or Pain,
That thou didst loose thy pride to question of My will?   Satan Nay, Lord, Thou knowest the truth. These evils are not ill.
They do but prove Thy wisdom. All that lives must perish,
Else were the life at charge, the bodily fires they cherish,
Accumulating ills. The creatures thou didst make
Sink when their day is done. They slough time like the snake
How many hundred sunsets? Yet night comes for rest,
And they awake no more,—and sleep,—and it is best.
What, Lord, would I not give to shift my cares and lie
Enfolded in Time’s arms, stone-dead, eternally?
No. ’Twas not Death, nor Pain; Pain the true salt of pleasure,
The condiment that stings and teaches each his measure,
The limit of his strength, joy’s value in his hand.
It was not these we feared. We bowed to Thy command,
Even to that stern decree which bade the lion spring
Upon the weakling steer, the falcon bend her wing
To reive the laggard fowl, the monster of the deep
Devour and be devoured. He who hath sown shall reap.
And we beheld the Earth by that mute law controlled,
Grow ever young and new, Time’s necklace of pure gold
Set on Creation’s neck. We gazed, and we applauded
The splendour of Thy might, Thy incarnated Godhead.
And yet—Lord God, forgive—Nay, hear me. Thou wert not
Content with this fair world in its first glorious thought.
Thou needs must make thee Man. Ah, there Thy wisdom strayed.
Thou wantedst one to know Thee, no mere servile jade,
But a brave upright form to walk the Earth and be
Thy lieutenant with all and teach integrity,
One to aspire, adorn, to stand the roof and crown
Of thy Creation’s house in full dominion,
The fairest, noblest, best of Thy created things—
One thou shouldst call